Deeplinks Blog posts about Content Blocking

Censorship circumvention software is about to become very popular in Egypt. On Wednesday, the country’s Prosecutor General, Abdel Maguid Mahmoud, ordered government ministries to enforce a ban on pornographic websites, based on a three-year old ruling by Egypt’s administrative court, which declared that “freedom of expression and public rights should be restricted by maintaining the fundamentals of religion, morality and patriotism” and denounced pornographic content as “venomous and vile.”

An anonymous government official claims that the order was a response to the ultraconservative Salafi “Pure Net” campaign, which staged a demonstration in front of the Cairo’s High Court on Wednesday, calling for an enforcement of the ban on Internet pornography on the grounds that such sites “violate Egyptian customs and values.”

Jordan is one of a handful of countries in the Middle East that does not censor access to websites.1 Instead, the government has taken a more liberal approach to Internet regulation, and as a result has attracted companies like Google and Yahoo!, both of which have offices in the capital city of Amman.

The Russian Duma overwhelmingly approved the controversial Internet regulation Bill № 89417-6. 441. A total of 441 out of 450 deputies representing all four party factions within the Duma, voted to support the bill. The regulations set forth within the bill, including the creation of a national blacklist and legal partnership with a content-monitoring bureau, are expected to go into effect in January after President Putin signs the bill into law.

Today, Russian-language Wikipedia, Livejournal, and other prominent RuNet websites have gone dark to protest Bill № 89417-6, which is currently being considered in the Duma. The bill is comprised of amendments that create an Internet blacklist which opponents say poses a serious threat to freedom of expression in Russia. The blackout follows in the footsteps of other similar high-profile protests against Internet censorship bills, including SOPA/PIPA in the United States, and DDL Intercettazioni in Italy.